Chapter 6: The Scientist

            The next morning Ara woke before Jane. He just lay watching her chest lightly rise and fall and the sunrise. Their bodies entangled, and the only feeling in Ara’s whole body was content. The perfect temperature, the most comfortable position, the best smell in the whole world. This feeling of security was alien to him and scary. It was a vulnerability that he had only tasted with his love for his dog and select friends over the years.

            Everything about the morning felt good. From the hot shower to laughing over breakfast at how desperate Toll was for table scraps. Even cleaning up had felt like a fun treat because Jane could stand right next to Ara and ‘accidentally’ bump or splash him. The two of them drank in the happiness like a free-running tap. The mood did not change until they talked about their afternoon with Quincy’s pack, but even that did not dampen the bubble. They decided to wait till the afternoon so that they could use the time as an excuse to leave.

            “He is not a bad guy, I would even say that what he is doing, trying to make a new pack where rogues can join, is a big change and revolutionary kindness that my species should be all for. They are all just hung up on breeding. You would think for a species with a declining number of births taking and rehabilitating rogues would be encouraged,” Ara had actually chosen to live here because of Quincy and his rag-tag group. Having a pack that he could work with, as well as introduce other shifters to was a huge asset, it was also a floating safety net for himself given how other shifters perceived him.

            The pack’s main income source was construction jobs and security. Anyone that hired them knew that they were shifters, but also because of the no-conventional nature of the pack, they were often given high-risk high reward contracts. Ara liked those kinds of cut-and-run jobs.  

            Much to everyone’s relief, Quincy had texted and explained that he was occupied and would trust his staff to get what needed to be done. It was a great situation, now they could get in and out with as little tension as possible. Ara had been put off by how standoffish Quincy had been about their little conflict at the rally. It was not like him to become so upset, and never before had he threatened Ara. Not that he had ever needed to, because they usually had the same goals. Nonetheless, Ara wanted to diffuse the situation, then they could move on to the human threat. The slightly less lethal of the two, but still a thing that needed to be dealt with.

             As the sun was sinking close to the horizon, Ara and Jane drove across town, to the more concentrated part of the city. Concentrated? No, it was poor. Before the war, this had been a ‘project’ neighborhood. There had been an idea that inexpensive minuscule homes could be built and put there for the homeless. Sometimes there was evidence of what once was- with some garish colors or odd purposeless designs. Eventually, it was poor areas like this that the shifters confined humans to during the war.

            The idea had been that humans and shifters would share space, separately. Eventually, the more powerful factions were the ones enjoying space and hygiene. The poor were left in the garbage. Despite the rhetoric being shifter vs. human at the end of the day none of that mattered and what really drew the line was wealth. Wealthy and powerful humans became aligned with the shifter communities, often living in luxury under the protection of the shifters, and often off the desperation of their own human populations.  It had caused a rift in the humans, and they started to target their own, and it was that split that had started the war.

            Slums like this were built upward and were repurposed as a training camps. The insurgency forces were born in places like these, where the weak become the strong just because of circumstance. Weakness led to death. Leaders rose from the contaminated and desolate conditions, ironically these areas were supposed to confine problematic humans by isolating them, and in the end, they had been the environment that fostered a stronger more organized effort on the human side. Like when a broken bone becomes stronger because it has repaired itself to be thicker, and more durable.

            The factions eventually started coordinating attacks, and once several grassroots leaders won over the military resources, the game was over, and everyone lost. The nuclear and chemical force was used in these areas regularly, but nothing compared to the waste that was laid by the dropping of ‘Pretty Woman” on the eastern European block. Now all that was left was a crater and a wasteland. The bomb had dropped when Jane was a child, she remembered seeing it on tv. It was the dropping of the bomb that put an end to the war. 

            Once half the population of Europe had vanished in a flash, then both sides realized that for both species to survive they needed to learn to co-exist. After the cleansing as it was come to be called the earth fell into the Dirty Ages. Jane's family was wealthy, her father owned several weapons manufacturing labels, and her family had been isolated from witnessing the true pain of the ecological damage. The shifters were more resistant to chemicals and radiation and as part of the peace agreements they removed dangerous remnants of the war, casting them out into the vast empty space. 

            Jane was watching out the window at the people who were meandering about with little purpose. There were drugs and other vices of severe poverty sprinkled around. Naturally, this did not help the rebuilding of relationships between humans and shifters because the vices were always made by humans, and they affected shifters too. At one point this was a strong argument for separation, but in the end, it was just impossible to regulate. Jane squeezed Ara’s hand, she had seen several children with chalk-white hands, a sure sign of usage, it made her cringe.

            They passed through the throng of stacked buildings, payment turned to dirt roads and some were made deliberately too small for cars. Lucky Ara clearly knew the way, Jane would not be able to navigate at all. The stacks were getting shorter and shorter and the lights were less bright, and it was clear they were on an edge of something.

            They parked the truck in a guarded lot, with large painfully bright lights. The guards nodded knowingly at Ara as they walked by. She suddenly felt very small next to Ara. Jane had always considered herself a sensible woman, but at the moment, she felt totally vulnerable. She looked around wide-eyed, peeking down alleyways and trying to absorb each and every overly lit sign. She was hyperaware that she did not know where they were despite being in a city that she felt she knew well. This was the cusp of the city, a space of contrast; the buildings and noise of the city were hyper-loud with colors and brightness, while ahead was dark and matte like dusty boots. Behind them, everything had a greasy shiny quality, the street reflecting up the neon signs, but ahead was quiet and rusted, the dust absorbed the noise and shine like a murky pond.

            Ara reached out and tugged Jane closer to himself as well as putting one hand on the small of her back, he did not like bringing her here. He could smell her anxiety, and the more concerning, curiosity. Claw Town was a place where humans came to live like they were dead and the shifters dyed while still living. It did not matter if a rogue went mad here, they would only kill humans that wanted to die anyways. It was the perfect place to recruit desperate shifters into a pack. An easy outlet for information and work. Ara could not fault Quincy for his clever location choice. Here he could keep his population up by recruiting desperate mad shifters and gain their loyalty.

            “Why is the parking so far away?” Jane muttered mostly to herself, crossing her arms to comfort herself.

            “Because cars are still faster than shifters, it's a power thing” he responded to her irritation with a mischievous smile.

            “Want me to carry you?” he asked, knowing full well she would not take him up on it. She was stubborn and was not likely to let something like a long walk make her feel any less. She just shot him a threatening look and squeezed his hand in a would-have-been painful way, it was rather cute he thought.

            They walked down a dirt road with a rusted gate held closed with a loose chain, and two shifters on either side of the gate. Jane started to feel nervous, there was a reason why humans stayed away from places like this. Heck most sane shifters would not go near this place, but that was the point after all, she chided herself. Inside the fence, there were piles of building materials piled here and there. The shadows of large equipment dotting the lot like looming boulders ready to roll out and squash anyone in the way. It had started to rain and the pitter-patter was loud as it hit the tarps that were stretched out to protect whatever supplies lay beneath.

            “Go on over to the office, Lilly is waiting for you there. She will take you to the clinic” one of the shifters who had opened the gate for them yell-talked to Ara over the now loud rain. They jogged over to the “office” that he had pointed to, and they took a moment to shake off some of the rain under the overhang before letting themselves in.

            The office was a propped-up trailer. It was an unappetizing shade of cream and orange, and the inside was not much better. It was dark and dingy now that the rain clouds covered what light was left from the sunset. It was disorganized and mismatched sofas that were overused and clear dirt marks from overuse lined the walls. A young black woman with a pink-tipped afro greeted them from behind the desk on the other end, Jane almost did not see her, because of the piles of mess and papers on the desk. Shocking considering how loud she looked.

             “Hello! Ara, good to see you,” she added to a lopsided pile that looked like it was about to fall onto the now slightly wet floor. Jane thought the floor was a cream linoleum but it was so covered in grime that it may have just been the outside. The cotton-candy-haired lady skipped gleefully forward to embrace Ara like she was savoring his smell and a polite handshake for Jane. 

            “Follow me, we will just nip over to the medical center, Alpha left me with literal piles of paperwork so I apologize for the extra walk in the rain.” She gestured outside smiling for Jane and Ara to go back out the door they had come in. Jane felt suddenly more nervous, something about this interaction felt stiff and rehearsed. She cradled her cast over her chest, subconsciously protecting her injured part. Ara picked up on her distress and put a large hand on her hip, rubbing his thumb against her spine

            “It’s been a while eh Ara? How’s the outside world treating you?” Lilly and Ara had met before, Jane made a mental note maybe she was picking up on some weird vibes because she really did not know what kind of relationship Ara had with this pack, outside of a few interactions. It was odd that he had not joined the pack, she made a mental note to ask him about it later.

            “Things have been fine, more interesting recently, but fine” Ara went on to have a polite conversation with their escort still gently rubbing her back with his fingers. It was annoying to jostle so near to him because she wanted to dash out of the rain, but staying close was a better call. 

            “I heard something about that Men’s rally y’all crashed. There have been more attacks on tall fellas recently too. I had one in the clinic where I volunteer in. Poor guy, got a shot right clean through his leg, they thought he would shift if he were in pain. Shockingly, he did not” she rolled her eyes over her shoulder at them. Jane smiled at her, she liked Lilly on the spot, and she seemed friendly. She was short, shorter than Jane, and voluptuous in all the ways: lips, hips, butt, hair, her eyes even seemed irregularly large and almond shaped giving her a doll-like quality. She wore rubber boots, something Jane had wished she would have thought of, her sneakers were soaked through and caked in mud. 

            “I keep wondering if they will call the summit early, things are getting tense, and I don't see any signs of a cool-down. The problem as far as I can see is work. Most companies are shifter owned or shifter managed and it puts everyone on edge trying to sus one another out” Ara said in a deeply sad way.

            “Well no one at the clinic in town knows that I am a shifter, humans still have no clue about how to spot a shifter.” Lilly rolled her eyes emphatically and tut her tongue in irritation, making Jane smile and cover a small laugh. If she had ever met Lilly in a different context, she would never have guessed she was a shifter. Jane was under the impression that shifters were Amazonian tall like Quincy and Ara. Yet Lilly was short and chubby, she would be the last person whom she would guess was a shifter based on looks alone. Clearly, Jane had a lot to learn.

            “Yeah well, you can’t help your genetics. My mother is an omega and my father is a beta. I have her to thank for my stature” she was looking at Ara with sparkles in her dark eyes. Her gold nose ring and the gold dermal piercings on either side of her eyes caught Jane’s eye. Ara towered over the both of them, but he slouched and had an intentionally unassuming posture, whereas Lilly stood up straight and confidently. Only a confident person could pull off pink hair after all.

          They had reached another trailer, but this one was metal and elevated off the ground. The rain had transformed the dusty lot into a muddy lot, and Jane felt guilty for the state of her shoes in this clearly new and clean space. Inside was what reminded Jane of mobile blood drives, many medical instruments on the overcrowded table-tops. A distinct smell of sanitizer, and too much white and sky blue in the decor. Ara had turned her about and using the soft dry inside of his shirt he wiped Jane's face, leaving blotchy wet marks on his shirt. He affectionately tucked her hair behind her ear, eyes dashing from one to the other.

            “Sit,” Lilly said sharply interrupting their tender moment, pointing to a comfortable La-Z-Boy. Jane squished over concentrating on not slipping on the mud that clung to her shoes. Wanting to take as few steps as possible she fell into the chair and wriggled about, crinkling the paper strip separating her from the chair. As Lilly started getting ready, a booming voice came from outside.

            “Ara! We need to have words” some man croaked just outside the door. That did not sound good. Ara made eye contact with Jane, blinking once, before stepping back out into the rain. It became eerily quiet and the rip and rustle of Lilly's prep work seemed extra loud without Ara. They could hear a man shouting, both of the women straining to listen. Oops, Jane thought with a gasp of guilt because they were talking about the meeting, and it had been her that pulled him away from his job, and now he was getting berated for it. Jane could not hear the specifics well, she twisted her ear towards the door and she felt a cold wipe followed by pressure and stinging, interrupting her focus. She looked down and nothing was there, just a single bead of blood. That was fast, she thought.

            “Parading around like you won the lottery, disgusting,” Lilly said quietly and disdainfully. Jane’s attention snapped from hearing what was going on outside to what was going on right in front of her. Lilly had shifted from a charming and cute bubbly personality, to gruff and angry. Her lip curled in distaste, as she aimed the needle at Jane's arm. Her movements were now rough, and clearly, she did not mind hurting Jane in the process, squeezing her hand that held Jane's unbroken wrist. Jane looked at her in shock, totally taken aback by the change in temperature. 

            “Sorry, what?” Jane said not really sure what to do or say. She looked at Lilly’s eyes, and they were now cold and deliberately not meeting her own as if she was not even there. She felt her mind starting to swirl, and she had to refocus her eyes several times, her arm now aching from the tie around her elbow as well as Lilly's hand on her wrist.

            “He finally takes up with someone, and it's a human?” She said more to herself than to Jane, because apparently, humans were not even worth looking at.

            “Look I am not sure what history you have, but Ara and I haven’t even talked about any of that. We only just met, like a week ago” she was trying to deflate the tension, plus whatever was between her and Ara was no one’s business, she felt ok downplaying.

            “Stupid too. He may as well have pissed all over for how much you reek of him.” Lilly looked her up and down lip twitching. Was she being talked to now? Janes's head grew heavy and slipped to the side once, twice. Her eyes were squinting with the effort to stay open.

          “Good thing he did not mark you, this would be much worse if he had,” the voices outside grew, and another voice joined in. Jane could not hear Ara at all, he must be staying calm, she thought impressed with that idea. Wait, something was wrong, Lilly was acting weird maybe she could yell out to him. Her head was fuzzy and she was having trouble thinking.

            A second needle went into her arm, not carefully or quickly like the first, this time she watched the red stream noodle down a plastic tube and into a small glass container. She found herself looking fascinated at her own blood, there was a buzzing in her ears like the fuzz of a television disconnected from the cable, she couldn’t hear Ara or the fight outside, just buzzing.

            “Bye-bye” Lilly said, looking into her eyes tauntingly. Jane’s vision blurred and her arms and legs felt heavy like sandbags, her mouth felt full of sand too. She tried to call out, but it was too hard. She was too tired. Someone was raising the chair her head lolling forward uselessly and her last sensible thought before sinking into unconsciousness was not again.